Party of Two (The Wedding Date #5)(82)

She opened her front door, walked inside, and slid to the floor with her back against the door.

How could he have done this to her?

She’d given so much of herself to Max. She’d thought he understood her. She’d thought he knew just how hard it was to deal with the public part of his life, how much of a compromise it was for her to even come to events like this for him, to be in public with him, to let him tell the world they were together. But he obviously didn’t understand at all, or else he never would have done what he did tonight. He never would have looked to her in that room, full of the press and his staff and so many people, and tried to get her to talk about one of the hardest moments of her life, one she’d spent years trying to get over, one she’d long ago forgiven herself for, but she knew the rest of the world wouldn’t. How could he have done that?

She curled her knees up to her chest and let the tears that had pricked her eyelids for the last hour finally flow.

Where the fuck did she go? Max fumed in the back seat of his car as Andy drove him home.

After the town hall ended, Max had been busy shaking hands and taking selfies and talking to community members and staff from the center, but he’d looked around for Olivia over and over again. He hadn’t seen her anywhere, but he’d just assumed she was hidden behind the crowd, or talking to someone else, or waiting for him in the greenroom. But when he’d made it back there, no one on his staff seemed to know where she was.

He wouldn’t be quite so worried about this if it hadn’t been for the look on her face the last time they’d made eye contact. That kid had asked the perfect question to allow Olivia to finally easily address everything in an optimal, press-friendly way—it couldn’t have been better if the question were planted! Max had looked to her gratefully so she could stand up and briefly talk about her background, how she’d succeeded, and give the kid advice for his future. She’d seemed to want to be an example for kids who had gone through what she had. But instead she’d just stared back at him with that look of stone on her face. He hadn’t understood at first, so he kept looking back at her, but she’d just looked angrier and angrier.

And then she’d disappeared. And she hadn’t texted to say where she was, and she hadn’t replied to any of his texts asking her where she was, and he couldn’t call her because he was in the car with his staff right now, and he still had no idea where the fuck she was or what that look on her face had been about and why she wasn’t answering his texts.

Maybe she was at his house right now. Maybe she’d needed to drive her friend home and had forgotten to text to tell him so. She had a key; maybe she was already there waiting for him. Maybe she was in his bed right now, waiting for him. Oh God, he hoped so—it felt like forever since he’d had her in his bed. He couldn’t wait to slide into bed with her tonight, and kiss her, and make love to her, and then wrap his arms around her and never let go.

Andy pulled up in front of his house, and Max thanked him for the great event before he raced into the house.

“Olivia? Olivia, are you here?” he shouted as soon as he walked in the door.

No answer.

Maybe she couldn’t hear from his bedroom. Or maybe she’d fallen asleep there, waiting for him.

He ran up the stairs and burst into his bedroom.

“Olivia.”

But his bedroom was silent, his bed empty. And he realized what should have hit him as soon as they’d pulled up to his house: her car wasn’t there.

Okay, seriously, where the fuck was she?

He called her, once, twice, but she didn’t answer.

He thought back to that frozen look on her face. Now that he thought about it, had she avoided his eyes for the rest of the town hall? He’d looked at her a few other times, but she’d always been looking at a random corner of the stage, definitely not at him.

He grabbed his car keys off the hook by the garage. Thirty minutes later, he banged on her front door.

“Olivia? Are you there?”

Her car was there, at least, so that was a good sign.

He rang her doorbell, then reached for his keys to let himself in. But before he could, her door swung open.

“So is your goal to let the whole world know exactly where I live, on top of everything else?”

She was still in the black pants and silk blouse she’d worn to the community center, but everything else about her looked different. Her hair was gathered in a tight knot at the top of her head, instead of the soft curls that had skimmed her shoulders. She had smudges around her face that he knew hadn’t been there earlier. And now, instead of either the laughter in her eyes he’d seen in the greenroom or that stony look on her face he’d seen in the auditorium, the look on her face was pure fury.

“Olivia, what happened? Where did you go?” He stepped inside. “What do you mean, ‘on top of everything else’?”

She slammed the door behind him.

“What do I mean? Have you forgotten what happened back there at the community center? What you did to me up there on that stage, in front of your staff and the press and hundreds of other people?”

He stared at her as realization dawned.

“This is all about that kid? Is that what all of this is about? I don’t understand why you wouldn’t give him advice in the first place—you told me you wanted to be able to be an example for kids like him!”